452 AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



have been raised by feeble mares, although such can scarcely 

 be considered the rule. 



Highly as we esteem many of the authorities that upon 

 this point are against us, still we are -compelled to dissent 

 from the sweeping assertions that most of them put forth in 

 regard to the dangers of transmitting disease from one gen- 

 eration of the horse to another. Our concern for the future 

 of his race in America is, we confess, by no means an anx- 

 ious one, so far as this subject bears upon it. 



CROSSING. 



A judicious and restricted system of crossing may be of 

 great advantage to our future stock of horses; but a promis- 

 cuous, unguarded one will prove its ruin. The practice of 

 breeding in-and-in, using the term in its most restricted sense, 

 has been proven, by the past history of the horse, to be detri- 

 mental to such an extent as to prove absolutely ruinous. 

 What we mean, in this connection, by breeding in-and-in, is 

 to continue breeding together members of the same family — 

 blood relations, in fact. There may be many families of the 

 same race, and still no known blood connection exist between 

 them. Our strictures must not be understood to mean that 

 Andalusian may not be bred with Andalusian, Arabian with 

 Arabian, or the pony with the pony; but they do mean to 

 condemn, most emphatically, the practice of breeding within 

 the limits of near relationship — ;such as mother and 8©n, 

 brother and sister, and the like. Where such relationships 

 are known to exist, the intelligent breeder will carefully 

 avoid permitting any connection. 



Any race of horses may be perpetuated in its purity, and 

 even improved, by bringing together remote families of that 

 race, and then practicing a judicious system of crossing among 

 them. These are the means by which the Arabs of the des- 

 ert maintain the wonderful superiority of their steeds ; and 

 the instincts of Nature have performed a similar service for 

 the wild horse of the plains, which is of Spanish origin, and 

 for the ponies of the Indians. We must enter our protest 



